System for control of air flow over an aircraft wing



Jan. 13, 1959 M. KADOSCH ET AL 2,868,479

SYSTEM FOR CONTROL O AIR FLOW OVER AN AIRCRAFT WING Original Filed Dec. 27, 1951 INVENTORS 27M WM rro/r N575 United States Patent SYSTEM FOR CONTRQL 0F AER FLOW OVER AN AIRCRAFT WING Marcel Kadosch, Paris, Jean Le Foll, Le Pre-Saint- Gervais, Francois M. L. Maunoury, Paris, and Jean Bertin, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, assignors to Societe Nationale dEtutie et de Construction de Moteurs dAviation, Paris, France, a company of France Original application December 27, 1951, Serial No. 263,666. Divided and this application December 8, 1953, Serial N0. 396,991

Claims priority, application France January 4, 1951 2 Claims. (Cl. 244-42) This application is a divisional application of our copending U. S. patent application Serial No 263,666, filed December 27, 1951.

The present invention relates to the control of the flow of air along a wing surface, and more especially the upper surface of an aircraft wing.

An object of this invention is to provide improved means for carrying out this control.

According to this invention there is provided a device for controlling the flow of air over the upper surface of an aircraft wing, comprising a support member spaced from and in the vicinity of said upper surface at a substantial distance to the rear of the leading edge of said wing, saidmember having a face lying opposite said upper surface, and nozzle means on said member, opening out on said face thereof and adapted to form a gaseous jet substantially inclined towards said upper surface when said nozzle means is supplied with gas under pressure. s

The invention is particularly applicable with a view to preventing separation of air flow from the upper surface of an aircraft wing. The nozzle means may comprise one or more outlets either of pinpoint form (in which case there is a fairly large number of outlets fairly close together) or of linear form, the said outlets being ori ented in a direction such as to produce, when they are fed from a suitable source of gas under pressure, one or,

therefrom tends to force the main flow towards the upper Patented Jan. 13, 1959 Figure 2 is a plan view of a portion of the said wing and of the said flow-regulating members.

The drawing shows a wing 15 some distance: above the upper surface of which small hollow support members 16' are disposed. The interior of the said hollow support members is fed with compressed gas by any desired source and the said hollow support members have a slot-like nozzle 17 oriented towards the upper surface of the wing 15. Each slot is oriented towards: the upper surface of the wing 15 so that the auxiliary jet issuing surface of the said wing. It is thus possible to avoid separation of the stream of fluid from an aerofoil of great curvature and such an arrangement is particularly interesting for additional lift devices, in particular for wing profiles of large camber and of great lift.

A valve 23 is provided to regulate the rate of flow of gas blown "through the slots.

Naturally, the auxiliary support members 16 will be situated mainly in regions where such flow separation tends to occur, in particular near the trailing edge. The number of such auxiliary support members will vary in accordance with the profile of the main wing 15 and may be limited to one. 1

What we claim is:

1. The combination with a high-camber aircraft wing, of a device for preventing separation of air flow from the upper surface of said wing, comprising nozzle means extending spanwise of said wing, positioned at a distance above said upper surface and ahead of the trailing edge thereof, said nozzle means having a discharge axis disposed in a generally crosswise direction with respect to said air flow and intersecting said upper surface, and means for supplying pressure fluid to said nozzle means to form jets crosswise of said air flow.

2. The combination of claim 1, wherein the flow separation preventing device is in the form of an airfoil extending parallel to the upper surface of the wing, the

nozzle means opening on the lower surface of said airfoil. 7

References Cited in the file ofthis patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,580,577 Baumann Apr. 13, 1926 1,780,298 Icre Nov. 4, 1930 1,820,919 Masey Sept. 1, 1931 1,823,655 Huseby Sept. 15, 1931 1,876,472 Schweisthal Sept. 6, 1932 1,887,148 De Ganahl Nov. 8, 1932 2,041,786 Stalker May 26, 1936 2,041,790 Stalker May 26, 1936 2,430,431 Lanier Nov. 4,1947

' FOREIGN PATENTS 471,177 Great Britain Aug. 30, 1937, 

